Oh wow, they weren't kidding about shipping out more! :shock: My expected order time was "after Q2", and I just got my email today—technically still the last day of Q2 here in the US. :grin:

(I suppose I'll still actually receive it in Q3… :happy:)

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Quoting: slaapliedjeI mean I don't mind trying out Europa Universalis IV on the Deck and reporting back how playable it is.

I want to say Stellaris is marked as playable?

I wouldn't be surprised if it's a UI issue. Stellaris, as a newer game, has a(n experimental) UI scaling option so I could see it being playable, but I don't remember EU IV having one (though admittedly it's been a few years since I last played it). I'd be interested in a report on playability, though.

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Quoting: wit_as_a_riddleSo essentially your question is:

Is Valve lying to us?

I doubt it. Maybe some testers are bending the rules? Perhaps. Why wouldn't they just change their criteria? I don't think crashing every 10 minutes is what Valve has in mind for a great experience on Steam Deck lol.

I wouldn't put it that way, more that Valve have some discretion about when they officially release a rating for a game. If they test two games, and both tick the boxes for Verified, but one would be a bad gameplay experience (crashes, whatever), they could hold off on releasing a rating for that game until Proton improvements or developer action fixes it up to a higher standard. At least, they might be able to do that now when there are 3.5k games rated, in the early days they might've released it anyway just to get the number of quicker (since it was technically Verified). But there wouldn't be any deception involved in any of this, and this is all just idle speculation on my part.

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Wow, I remember backing this on Kickstarter. And then like most games I backed there, by the time it came out my interests had changed and I never actually played it that much. :sad: (At least my younger brothers played it a lot via family share.) Cool to see it still being updated, though, maybe I should jump back in and see if it grabs me this time around.

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Quoting: wit_as_a_riddle

Quoting: PhiladelphusI'm curious: have the ratings shifted to be more in line with peoples' expectations?

No, they haven't changed their criteria for rating games as Verified.

Right, I know the criteria, thanks; but I remember there was a big outcry when the Deck first came out that games which were—according to Valve's definitions—Verified or Playable still had issues like crashes, unwatchable cutscenes, etc.. Regardless of what the formal criteria say, people generally expect a Verified game to be basically flawless*. So my question was, whether or not Valve have changed the formal criteria, do they seem to have informally changed the process such that e.g. Verified games are more in line with what people expect rather than just their own criteria. (Ticktok's reply above seems to indicate, informally, that the answer might be "yes.")

*Like, the Verified criteria say nothing about stability, so a Verified game could crash every 10 minutes and still perfectly fit the criteria for being Verified; but most people would expect a Verified game not to do that.

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various bug fixes too like projectiles sometimes colliding with teammates too early / late

I saw that in the patch notes, and am hoping, as a Medic main, that that means the Crusader's Crossbow projectile is more reliable. I might need to get back into the game and check it out… :grin:

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As I continue to wait for my order email, I'm curious: have the ratings shifted to be more in line with peoples' expectations? I.e., Verified being more like ProtonDB's Platinum (stable, no problems, basically bug free), rather than "technically checks off all the boxes Valve laid out on the criteria page".

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But everyone who misses the email means I get mine faster! …But seriously, that's cool of Valve that people have a little extra time.

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Oh, "Deckard" is the code name…thought Valve was going for a theme for their hardware products, and was looking forward to the Valve Deck-orator, Ad-deck-t, and Fana-deck. :grin:

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Quoting: Eike

Quoting: Philadelphus

Quoting: PhlebiacWhat happens when the host creature gets an itch, and rolls over to scratch all those pesky parasites on its back?

Given its biology, I'm not sure it can roll over. :dizzy:

I'm kinda interested in how your villagers get up there in the first place though—the game kinda glosses over it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia [External Link] ?

I can't play the demo again to check, but if I remember correctly, the intro explains that the world has been changing (weird plants growing with clouds of spores, etc.), forcing your band of villagers to move from their original home. In their wandering, then encounter the Onbu, which it sounds like is something rare that they only remember from legend. I believe the intro to the game ends with a static shot of your villagers looking down at the Onbu from a distance (like from on a hill or something), then it fades into the game proper with all your villagers on its back.

Quoting: Purple Library GuyYeah, while I was watching I was thinking, OK, if it lets its tail drag sometimes you could probably get on there and walk up to the back . . .

I don't think we ever see it drag its tail in gameplay. Not that I have a problem with the villagers getting on while it goes to sleep or anything, it's just more how they get up there in a physical sense. Its back is like a plateau, with a flat top and steep sides. Maybe your villagers came from a mountain and are all accomplished mountaineers? :huh:

Later in the tech tree you can build watch towers which let you send away parties (even while the Onbu is moving) to investigate places you pass by, and I don't have an issue with those including, I dunno, rope ladders for letting people up and down, I'm just fascinated by how people get up there in the first place. I'm probably definitely way overthinking it though. :grin:

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